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When your perfectly healthy body begins experiencing serious ailments like sagging skinbelly fat …no, I’m talking serious stuff like bone fractures from OSTEOPOROSIS, and you can’t or prefer not to take the risks of side effects from pharmaceuticals, you start looking for ways to strengthen your bones. My research led me past the Vitamin D3 to a lesser known Vitamin K2. Note to self: don’t ever use K2 in a sentence without prefacing it with the word Vitamin.

Vitamin K2 is not found in abundance naturally, and the source I found was not so palatable in its primary form. Scraping and eating the white pith of orange peel…not so “a-peel-ing” to most of us. This recipe for Sunshine Muffins calls for an entire orange. You heard me right, the whole thing…orange segments, peel, and Vitamin K2 rich pith. (Try saying that three times fast.) And it’s about the easiest muffin you’ll ever make. And it tastes good!

I found it years ago in this Cookbook, which I doubt is still in print. If you find it, buy it, because it’s one of my favorites; I keep it out on my cabinet, it’s that good.

To make these muffins, here’s what you will need:

1 orange

1/2 cup orange juice (I used fresh, but you could use frozen or from a carton)

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

1 and 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar or substitute (I used Xylatol)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp salt (I use a pinch)

1/2 cup raisins (I prefer cranberries or dried cherries.)

1/2 cup chopped nuts

And here are the EASY instructions:

Cut the clean orange into eight pieces and remove any seeds, if you like, otherwise, throw the whole thing into the blender or food processor. Add orange juice, egg, and oil and blend until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until just mixed. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

This made 12 average muffins for me. If you want to make them gluten free, just use almond flour and adjust accordingly.

Fast, easy, minimal clean up, healthy and delicious! What more could you want in a muffin? And if you say meatloaf, mashed potatoes, or scrambled eggs, I’m not sure we can be friends. If you serve me a muffin, it had better be sweet…just sayin’.

I wish! Oh, how I’d like to say that I have everything done and am anxiously awaiting our Christmas celebration. Not so, this year. But, I’m getting there, and, due to this lingering cold, I have had to be somewhat resourceful.
Since much of our time is spent shopping for that perfect gift, wrapping, and cooking, I thought I’d share a few helpful tips. Now, I can’t help with that perfect gift. If any of you have tips for that, please share come do my shopping!

But, for wrapping, I am using whatever I can find. I admit to going to the Dollar Tree for some wrapping paper, though. Now, I love the Dollar Tree, but there are some things that are better not purchased there. Wrapping paper is one of them! Talk about cheap paper. It ripped when I plopped placed the gift on it. I had some better quality paper left over from last year, so I am making do. So, at the end of the cheap paper, you get a tube, but at the end of the more expensive paper, you get this.

It’s a really nice, heavy piece of paper. I decided it would make a cute “wrapper” of some sort. I folded the ends down like a little pocket and tied it with some leftover ribbon. I added a Dollar Tree embellishment, also left over from last year, and it turned out surprisingly cute.

And I’ll bet you would never guess what is wrapped up in there. I would tell you, but it’s a secret.

Another thing I have had left over for six years are the wine glass tags I made for our daughter’s wedding. (In an earlier post I mentioned that I was so busy I forgot to have the tags handed out.) Welllll, perfect for a Christmas tag. I made them by printing out a photo in sepia tones and using Golden Gel Medium to transfer the image onto a manilla tag.

So, here it is attached to the package.

And I always have jute twine. I saw some really cute twine flowers on Pinterest. You can find the tutorial here.http://www.thebugbytes.com/2012/02/twine-flowers.html. I didn’t have the right kind of needles, and anyway, I don’t sew much, you know. So I just looped, gathered, and tied.

I could embellish with an antique brooch. But, I just pinned this one to a Kraft paper bag with jute handles.

Who says Christmas paper must be red, green, or gold? Look in your leftovers for birthday paper. Here, and excuse the lighting, I used a Tiffany blue patterned paper. Don’t have a bow? Roll your own using a strip of leftover paper. If the paper is not double sided, just fold the strip over and secure it together before you make the roll. Look through fabric scraps and vintage lace. I found this crocheted doily, gathered into a snowflake like form and taped it to the wrapping paper. The monogrammed tag was a freebie from http://www.weddingchicks.com/freebies/custom-monograms/mini-antique-monogram/

And now, for the cooking time-saver. My “go to” appetizer has gone from cheese ball to roll-ups. You can make them as simple or festive as you wish. Our favorite is the dried beef roll up, but we also love the chili-olive ones. The staple is cream cheese and the wraps are tortillas. I’m making both of them this year, along with this variation that is a bit more festive.

Dried Beef Roll-ups
2 8oz cream cheese (softened)
1 small container French Onion Dip (I like Hiland brand)
1 jar dried beef-cut into small shreds
Garlic salt to taste (I like lots-1/2 tsp, but taste as you go)
Mix all together and spread on tortillas. Roll up and refrigerate at least an hour before slicing.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/cranberry-feta-pinwheels-16213?oc=linkback
I toasted half a cup of pecans and chopped them into the mixture. That makes it a bit harder to spread, but oh, so worth it.
Since we are celebrating Christmas this weekend, I made these spreads today and stored them in zip lock bags. I’ll take them out in a couple of days, spread them, roll them up, and slice them. Easy peasy! Enjoy!